


Sacred Covenant

by Carmendy



Category: Fallout 4
Genre: Domestic, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Mutual Pining
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-26
Updated: 2016-03-26
Packaged: 2018-05-29 04:55:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6360229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Carmendy/pseuds/Carmendy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sole Survivor Diane and MacCready set out from Sanctuary to Covenant to arrange a trading route, but when Diane fails the GOAT, are forced to play the part of a newlywed couple in order to gain entry. Neither seems quite as upset at the arrangement as the other thought they'd be.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sacred Covenant

“So where are we headed this time?” MacCready asked, struggling to straighten the strap of the sniper rifle and keep up pace with her at the same time as they made their way out of Sanctuary, into a sun barely peering over the horizon. “A raider compound? Another settler kidnapping? Deathclaw? Tell me there’ll be a deathclaw.”   
“Get any more enthusiastic and a Deathclaw just might hear you.” She’d woken him up at just about dawn, given him barely enough time to pull on his coat and grab his gun before she headed out again. Diane Scully was a lot of things; patient was not one of them.   
“Psh. Like I’d mind. It’s been a while since I’ve seen any real action.” He wasn’t very patient himself.  
“It might be a while longer. We’re just checking out some new settlement to the East. Covenant. Apparently they’re doing pretty well. Preston thought it’d be worth trying to establish a trading route to Sanctuary Hills.” She sidestepped around a gap in the broken-down bridge, and he bobbed behind her.  
“How far East are we talking?”   
“Far. That’s why I woke you up this early. I want to make sure we get there before nightfall. It’s going to be quite a hike.”   
“Maybe we’ll run into a Deathclaw on the way.” He said, hopefully.  
“And maybe we’ll run into a group of raiders who just want to have lunch and a nice chat.” Diane shot back, her smirk pitted against his.   
He snorted. “I’d take the Deathclaw any day. No question. Can you imagine the food at raider lunch?”  
“I’m not sure I want to.” She said. 

They kept to the roads, and around noon, when the sun melted through the autumn chill, crossed paths with a few bloodbugs, which were easier to defeat than MacCready had hoped.   
“We’re making good time. Should only be a couple hours now.” Diane said, glancing down at the blinking map on her wrist.   
“Good. It’s starting to get hot.”  
“Yeah.” Diana shielded her brow with the back of her hand. “You know what would be great right now?”   
“Water?”   
“No. Fresh lemonade.” 

…

“Is that it?” MacCready asked, pointing towards the wall across the bridge.   
“Must be. Come on.” Diane quickened her pace to a jog, and MacCready sighed and hurried behind. “Hey, they’re not shooting!” She shouted back over her shoulder at him, once it became very apparent that the men guarding the building were indeed, not shooting.   
“Yay.” Said MacCready.   
“Excuse me,” Diane said to one of the guards, only to be interrupted by an older man.   
“Oh! Are you two looking for somewhere to settle down? Look no further than--”  
“No, actually, I’m from Sanctuary Hills. Is there someone I can talk to about trading—”  
“Traders, huh? Well, we require all visitors to take the GOAT exam before we can let them in.”  
“…What?”  
“For the safety of our community. You understand.”  
“Not really. What kind of test is it?”  
“Well, it’s quite simple. I’ll just ask you a few questions about what you’d do in certain situations, and you’ll reply as best you can.”  
“That sounds…reasonable.” Diane said, with some hesitation.   
“Then let’s get started.” 

Diane turned to MacCready, whispering behind her hand. “Don’t worry, I passed the bar.”  
MacCready whispered, “What bar?”   
“It’s a really hard test you have to take to—never mind.” She sat down in the chair in front of the desk.   
“I’m ready.”   
The man asked a few questions, nodding and scribbling after each response. They were strange questions, but not stranger than anything else she’d come across in The Commonwealth. The man frowned, then stood up.   
“I believe we’re finished.” Diane stood too.   
“Did I pass?”  
“I’m afraid not.”   
“What?”  
“I wish I had better news, but it really is strange. Almost everyone passes.”   
“How about I pay you, and then you let me in? I’m sure the caps will do your community more good than I could do harm.”   
“I’m afraid not, ma’am. We have a strict policy here. But maybe—”  
“What?”  
“Well, if that man you’re with were your husband, and he passed, then you’ll both be allowed inside. See, it’s always good to have married couples join the community, really helps with the wholesome family-friendly image we like to keep up.”  
Diane glanced at MacCready. “Do you mind if I talk to my...partner, first?”  
“Go ahead.” 

They stepped away. MacCready crossed his arms over his chest and shifted his weight to his right leg.   
“This is insane.” He said, angry. Diane crossed one arm and chewed the thumbnail of the other.   
“I know, I know. But we lie all the time. So really, this isn’t that different—”  
“Not that different? We’ll have to pretend we’re married. Doesn’t that bother you?” She looked at him, intent.   
“Does it bother you?”   
“I mean--a little." He'd meant the delivery to be sarcastic, but it had ended up sounding deflated as he realized it really didn't. For the most part, he'd been bothered on her behalf. He still didn't quite understand why she hadn't just punched the man in the face at the suggestion, as per her usual style. Maybe Covenant was more important than she was letting on.  
“I’m not saying it’s not weird, but we’ll only be here for a couple days, and then we can leave and act like none of this ever happened. What happens in Covenant stays in Covenant. We have nowhere else to stay, and it’s too late to turn back now.”  
He raised an eyebrow.   
"What?"   
"That's your proposal? If you want me to agree, you're going to have to be a little more persuasive."  
She rolled her eyes--he wasn't sure how he ever survived without that patronizing eye roll. It was almost better than her smile. "Of course, how uncouth of me. Robert Joseph MacCready, will you do me the great honor of pretending to be my husband for the next few days so these wackjobs will let us inside their settlement and we won't have to hike all the way back across the Commonwealth in the dark?"  
"Diane Grace Scully, I do. I sarcastically swear to stand by you in rad poisoning and in health until death inevitably, and likely soon, do us part."  
It was Diane's turn to raise an eyebrow. "You're surprisingly familiar with the old matrimonial vows for a wasteland bachelor."   
"Well, I--" for a moment, he considered telling her. That it was hard to forget a wedding once you'd been in one. Maybe he would tell her, eventually. But not now, not today. "--read the wedding issue of the Silver Shroud. Number 201, the Shroud marries the Mistress of Mystery to save the city."  
He could tell she didn't believe him, but figured she respected his privacy too much to say anything. Or maybe she simply thought he'd return the favor by not questioning her when she did what she did next. 

"I have something that might be useful." She said, with a mixture of urgency and forced indifference that made MacCready nervous. She rummaged through her bag for a moment and finally withdrew two simple wedding bands, offering him the larger one.   
"Where did you get those?" He asked. He'd seen the rings before, once, right after they'd met when she'd given him her bag and asked him to find something for her. He’d made up excuses in his head for why she’d kept them—maybe she simply forgot to pawn them, maybe they got lost in the bottom of the bag because they were so small, maybe she kept them on her for an occasion just like this one—anything but sentimental value. He knew her, and she wasn’t sentimental. Not sentimental enough to wear one, anyway, but maybe that was the point. She wasn’t quite ready to let go of them yet, but she didn’t want to look at them either. The bag offered a compromise. Out of sight, out of mind.   
"I found them on some raiders. They weren't the lunching type." She said, in a tone that implied a joke, but with a stare that implied he wouldn’t ask any further questions if he valued his life. He accepted the ring from her palm and hoped maybe she would tell him eventually, if not now, if not today. And that was that. 

The truth was, Diane had told almost everyone else by now about Shaun and her husband, which was part of the reason she hadn't taken MacCready with her recently. She'd been following leads on her son, and she didn't want to have to explain to him why she'd held off on telling him for so long. She didn't want to have to explain that he was the only one whose opinion of her she cared about. She was worried if he knew, he would see her differently, that their relationship would become different.   
And she was tired of everything being different. 

Diane slid the ring on her own finger, adjusting it. It was looser than she remembered. A few seconds of silence passed, as the two of them stared down at their own hands like they really were infected with that hypothetical flesh-eating virus from the GOAT.   
“This feels weird.” Said MacCready, finally, a little spooked by how perfectly it fit his own finger.   
Diana quipped back without pause, “It’s a good thing I didn’t bring Danse. No way the ring would’ve fit over his power armor.”   
“Or Dogmeat,” MacCready suggested, still staring distantly at his own hand.  
Diana nodded her agreement, face blank, “Or Dogmeat.” Then she laughed softly, “That would’ve been a real disaster.”   
He laughed too, then lowered his hand to his side. “I guess I’d better go pass that test now, huh?”  
Diane nodded again, “Yeah, or else this is going to be a pretty short engagement.” He turned, and Diane considered saying something, saying she was glad she’d brought him, and not just because he was the only one who the ring fit.  
But because if it had been anyone else, she probably would have just punched the man in the face and trekked back to Sanctuary in the dark. But with him, it was, well--different. And maybe that was okay.   
And maybe, one day, she would tell him all of it. But not today.


End file.
